Brendan Burke was laid to rest today in Canton, Mass., just four days after he died in a car crash.

[Brendan’s father] Brian did not speak during the service, the family eulogy being delivered instead by Brendan’s sister Molly and brother Patrick.

Molly described her loving brother as “an invitation to the dance of life.”

Brendan Burke was laid to rest today in Canton, Mass., just four days after he died in a car crash.

[Brendan’s father] Brian did not speak during the service, the family eulogy being delivered instead by Brendan’s sister Molly and brother Patrick.

Molly described her loving brother as “an invitation to the dance of life.”

“I can’t think of a better way to describe what you offered me,” she said, before breaking down in tears.

Patrick delivered an impassioned assessment of his brother’s “courage to transcend cynicism and fear.”

“His vision of the world was a spark that lit a fire of hope in so many people,” Patrick said. “That fire has not been extinguished by his death. His memory will fan a flame of courage in all of us.”

You can read various stories from the Toronto Star, the Associated Press, the Toronto Sun and the Patriot Ledger (Quincy, Mass.).

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